Screenwriting, Lyrics, Art, and Investigation
Breakdown of television episodes using the Storytelling Enneagram formula.
ONE
A close-up of Spongebob’s shoes as he tiptoes backward. Pivot! He’s in a karate stance. He backs up into his pineapple house. Startled, he karate chops it.
TWO
When he goes inside and starts to relax, a strange noise surprises him. Ooh, his face gets devilish and he sneaks forward.
THREE
His shoes make a squeaking sound. Nope, he’s stepping on toy ducks that quack. He kicks them aside!
Continue reading “KARATE CHOPPERS”ONE
The Enterprise in orbit. On the planet the landing party includes Kirk and Sulu, who holds a little dog in an orange costume with a unicorn horn. Yes!!
They remark that it’s already getting cold and the nighttime temperature will be brutal. And then Kirk reaches over and pets the dog’s scaly tail. Yes! Just another actor on set for Shatner to improv with.
Someone cries out. Kirk and Sulu (still carrying the pooch) go see what happened. A crewman slipped off a ledge and cut his hand. It’s bad enough to go back to the ship. A lot of suspicious-looking yellow dust came down the embankment with him.
Orbit-wipe to Scotty in the transporter room. As the crewman materializes, a warning light blinks on the console, and Scotty re-energizes. Fisher makes it. However, Scotty doesn’t like the dust on his uniform. Decontaminate that.
After the crewman leaves Scotty returns to the console to doublecheck the instruments. Kirk radios that he’s ready to beam up. Just one moment, Captain.
I know which episode this is! Yes!! Oh, it’s excellent. The dog was the clue but I couldn’t quite put it together until now.
Continue reading “The Enemy Within”ONE
Sunday morning in Bikini Bottom. The three-palm island dissolves to the neighborhood. It’s time for Squidward to practice his clarinet.
TWO
In his house Squid kisses his beloved Clari and opens his porthole window.
Spongebob sleeps. His alarm ticks down to six o’clock.
THREE
As Squid wets his lips and prepares to blow, the fog horn blasts from the pineapple window, knocking the clarinet down Squidward’s throat. Spongebob, looking out his own porthole, shouts, “Good morning!” Squid makes squeaky noises back at him.
Continue reading “SB-129”ONE
The title card says May 1914. Time is passing between episodes.
TWO
Sybil is in the crowd at some rally. Oh, I see Mrs. Crawley in the background. I think it’s a women’s suffragette meeting, although it’s a man giving the speech. Men in the crowd throw things at him. Branson in chauffeur’s uniform comes up behind Sybil to protect her. Isabelle comes to Sybil and tells her it’s time to go home. Branson would lose his place if anything happened to you. Good argument!
As he drives her home they speak about politics. He respects Lord Grantham but believes he’s part of an oppressive class. Bold words. Sybil is not offended.
Carson and Hughes talk in his office. In the background we hear Patmore railing at Daisy. The doctor has confirmed she has cataracts. She’s scared. But she can’t keep treating Daisy like that. Carson holds a letter that seems to disturb him. No information yet, though.
Sybil comes through the kitchen. Her whirlwind disturbs William who disturbs Thomas. Bates puts in his two cents, and the staff area becomes tense for everyone. It’s just tension, with no idea of a specific Trouble.
Still contemplating his mysterious letter, Carson is late for his duties. Hughes has to come in and remind him.
Bates dresses Robert for dinner. They discuss politics throughout, and Bates mentions that Branson was at the rally. Ha, now Bates is stuck. He’s forced to tell Robert that Lady Sybil was also there.
THREE
At dinner Robert raises the issue with Sybil. He’s quite calm considering how outraged he was upstairs. And . . . there comes the explosion.
Continue reading “Episode 6”ONE
The team is at a crossroads kiosk. A nearby village advertizes a Fire Nation festival.
TWO
On the backside of the board are wanted posters. The most prominent is of Aang, but he isn’t worried. The festival seems a great opportunity for him to find a fire bending teacher. They’ll attend and wear disguises.
THREE
Another wanted poster is of the Blue Spirit. That’s a fun detail. We get a push-in, though, on the third wanted poster: an unknown person with two vertical scars running through his eye area.
Continue reading “The Deserter”ONE
Captain’s log as the Enterprise orbits an icy, dying planet. They are to retrieve the science party below and observe the planet’s collapse. However, on the station the people are inexplicably frozen at their consoles.
Beaming in are Spock and another crewman wearing . . . haha! It looks like my grandma’s plastic couch cover. I’m totally distracted from what’s happening by this costume, including the tubular head piece with the clear plastic face plate. Masterful.
However, people are dead, including the guy taking a shower while fully clothed, so let’s pay attention.
TWO
Rut-roh. The unnamed crewman takes off his glove and reaches under his hood to scratch his nose. There sits his abandoned glove while he continues to investigate the console, his bare hand coming close to a mysterious substance. Aargh! The stain ejects a drop that travels to the idiot’s hand. WHAT?!! He shakes the hand and touches his face with it! And then he puts his glove back on. Haha, and of course Spock returns and says, “Make sure we expose ourselves to nothing.”
Roll credits.
Bridge business as the Captain’s log recaps what we know so far.
THREE
Scotty beams up the away team. At Spock’s insistence he and doofus go through a decontamination sequence. Kirk wants them also to go to medical for a check-up. Bones In, on the case, as our Three.
Continue reading “The Naked Time”ONE
Gary exercises on a hamster wheel. Spongebob takes him down and plays fetch. Whatever he throws, Spongebob must wait, checking his watch, as Gary the Snail retrieves it. Heh.
When Gary finally returns, waking Spongebob from a nap, he gets chin tickles and eye stalk pets. “I love you, Gary.” Gary climbs all over Spongebob with snail cuddliness.
Patrick bursts through the door. He’s very excited as he wields his jellyfishing net. There’s some kind of convention this weekend, but Spongebob has no one to take care of Gary.
TWO
Cut to Squidward knocking on the pineapple door. He’s here to complain about underwear on his front lawn. Wut? But Spongebob takes this perfect opportunity to ask Squid to watch Gary.
THREE
Haha! Spongebob introduces the snail, which drips slime in closeup, and Squid recoils. Get somebody else.
Continue reading “I WAS A TEENAGE GARY”ONE
Gwen, Anna, and Daisy prepare Mary’s bedroom. Daisy, fumbling the andirons at the fireplace, says she hates this room. Flashback to her memory of Kemal being carried out. She says nothing, though, and Gwen shrugs.
Exterior shot of the Abbey, wildflowers in the foreground. I assume we are to feel a sense of summer.
In the dining room the family eats breakfast. Letters and sniping.
TWO
Sybil’s letter gets her up and down the hall. She’s applied for a secretarial job in Gwen’s name. When she’s told, Gwen is excited. Very straightforward Two: the traditions of Downton are changing.
Crawley House. Isabelle will write to Edith about this church tour offer. Matthew makes it clear he has no interest in her. This is a stealth Two. We won’t see how this Trouble develops until later.
Molesley would like to help the village flower show and is given permission. This, which seems kind of a throwaway moment, is the most resonant plotline in this episode. Fascinating structural choices.
THREE
Thomas, returning keys, hides a bottle of wine behind his back as Bates walks in. It’s Carson’s office, and we’ve heard him mention in a previous episode that wine has been missing. Let the sneaking, and its repercussions, commence.
Continue reading “Episode 5”This episode is a structural disaster. I’ve left detailed impressions at the Four and Five, in case you can spot a Three and Six yourself. I won’t be offended if you skim past, though. If you do, see my recap after the Nine.
ONE
Space, with Captain’s log, over. Ahead is a recorded distress signal from a ship listed as missing two centuries ago.
Okay, weirdness. The camera pulls back from a little view screen of outer space, the image we’ve been watching, to show Kirk and Spock playing 3-D chess. Spock, in a yellow shirt and with bushier eyebrows, looks non-canon. And his makeup makes his skin yellow. I can’t concentrate on the plot!
Kirk contemplates this odd distress message while Spock challenges him to make his chess move. They banter, waiting, until the bridge signals. This lounge, well-lit and well-populated, is a real set, nothing like the cardboard-walled rec room from the last episode.
TWO
Transporter room. It’s Scotty! Yay, finally! Like Spock, he also wears the gold jersey. The mystery item with the signal is beamed in. It looks like a probe, and Spock says it was ejected when its ship was damaged. Rut-roh, it starts to blink and beep, transmitting something. All decks go on alert.
Roll credits.
THREE
(There is no Three.)
Continue reading “Where No Man Has Gone Before”ONE
A skeleton on a sunken ship, a spider in snorkel gear — it’s a Halloween episode. The French narrator tells us so. “Everyone’s having fun.” The Krusty Krab has a big sign out front and some nice jack-o-lanterns.
TWO
“Well, almost everyone.” Inside the KK kitchen, Spongebob jumps at a sound. Washing dishes, he quickly turns when the order rack makes a sinister chuckling-like squeak. He rushes through the rest of the pile, breaking some plates, and declares he’s done.
Krabs blocks the door. Don’t you want to hear my scary story? No. But . . . he can’t resist. Krabs sets up a campfire just inside the front door and they sit around it.
THREE
Ooh! It’s a Flying Dutchman story! Yay!
(What a great Three: Introduce the idea of the Dutchman. Wait until the Six!)
Continue reading “SCAREDY PANTS”